2500 Syrians flee to Turkey in 1 day

About 2,500 people fleeing violence in Syria have entered Turkey over the past 24 hours, a Turkish official has said. Most of the refugees crossed into the southeastern Turkish province of Hatay, which juts into Syrian territory. Turkey is now sheltering close to 70,000 Syrian refugees and is struggling to accommodate the influx. Hundreds more refugees, mostly from Syria’s Idlib and Aleppo provinces, were stuck on the Syrian side of the border and had been told to wait until tomorrow to cross because of the large numbers, Syrian opposition sources said. Turkey’s foreign minister said on Monday that the country would be able to accommodate no more than 100,000 refugees and that the United Nations may need to create a “safe zone” within Syria to shelter any beyond that number.